Executive director

Peter Sands delivered his first report as Executive Director to the Global Fund Board, on the first day of the 40th Board meeting held on 14–15 November in Geneva, to an appreciative and warmly supportive set of responses from Board delegations.

“A narrow focus on delivering health services through public institutions won’t end [the] three global plagues”

The Global Fund’s next executive director does not need to be a technically-minded public health expert, he said. “The organization would benefit from someone who understands how to structure deals, how to pitch policymakers, and how to reach into the private sector where the majority of people in countries with big disease burdens — like India and Indonesia — actually access their healthcare,” he added.

The position of executive director of the Global Fund has been posted on the online Jobs Board on the website of the news magazine, The Economist. The announcement, which can be found here, was first posted on 9 June 2017.

In a commentary posted on its website, the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) has identified three qualities that the next executive director of the Global Fund should exemplify. They are as follows:

Not surprisingly, opinions concerning what went wrong with the Global Fund’s executive director selection process vary, depending on who you ask. Many of the people we spoke to in preparation for this article – including Board delegations – were reluctant to comment at all, let alone publicly.